The rapidly increasing cost of higher eddication is one of (many) reasons I'm so bullish on First Marblehead. I'm working on a Ph.D. at a big midwestern university. Despite my best efforts, the kids keep enrolling in droves; federal financial aid, plus whatever their parents squirreled away, will get most of them about a semester and a half. Gazing into the misty future, I see enormous demand for private education loans, hence for the securitization of such loans. I see FMD making money hand over fist. I see myself eating less rice and oatmeal, buying a really nice bicycle, perhaps even sending a child of my own to college.